The World I Never Knew
by One.who.once.was
Summary: Max get a package with something he never expected, and it might just save his life.
1. The Robot Boy

Max lay on his new bed in his also new room; his finger's laced together underneath his head as he stared up at the ceiling. He smiled at the thought of him spending all his summers with his Dad now, his aunt allowing it only when she saw the bond that had formed between them during the Zeus vs. Atom match. His new room was in Tallet's Gym building, he and his Dad now living with Bailey. A soft knock on the door broke his train of though as Charlie came in.

"Hey kid, a big package just arrived for you. You didn't get nothing illegal did you?"

Max's eyes went wide. "I wasn't expecting a package." He said as he bolted off his bed and past his father. He flew down a flight of stairs to the main gym room, Charlie a step behind him the whole way. There on the floor of the gym was a wooden crate, about as tall as Max, and a couple of inches wider. He inspected the box, the return label read "Tokyo, Japan" and an envelope was attached to the crate. Max ripped off and opened it to find a letter, he began to read

**Max,**

**You need not know my name, for it is not important. All you need to know is in this box is my life's work, and the most unique robot you will ever meet. Keep in mind he is slow to trust others, but is a powerful machine. And you of all people should know this but remember, don't judge a book by its cover**

_Slow to trust others?_ Max thought. _What is that supposed to mean?_ He flipped the paper over, looking for more explanation but found none. He handed the note to Charlie and began to pry open the box. The side closest to him popped off and he carefully set it on the ground and looked inside. At first glance you would have thought the mystery man sent him a dead boy, but upon closer inspection you could see it was a cleverly disguised robot. It was about Max's height with black hair pointed into two spikes, tall red book coming up to its knees, and wore nothing but a black speedo.

"Umm . . . is that supposed to be a fighting robot?" Charlie asked a skeptical look on his face.

"Oh come on, you read the note, 'don't judge a book by its cover'." Max grinned and removed the robot from the box. He searched for an on/off switch with his eyes, and then noticed a thin, black outline of a panel on the robot's upper left chest. Max gently pressed on it and it popped open to show the inner wires and mechanisms, and what appeared to be the battery. He looked over at Charlie for reassurance, who shrugged in return. So Max pushed down on the battery and it light up. Max sprang back, not knowing what to expect, but the robot just laid there. Max began to step forward when the robot snapped up into a sitting position and its eye's flew open. It quickly got to its feet and looked around. Its eyes darting around and resting on Charlie, then it did the last thing they where expecting it to, _it spoke_

"Who are you? Where am I?" it demanded.

I know, very short, but I want to know how you people out there like it before i continue, so please R&R


	2. That Didn't Work

Charlie and Max were stunned to silence, their mouths hanging wide open; they looked at each other then back to the robot. The robot in front of them lifted both its arms up and pointed one at each of them, hands in fists. Slowly the hands peeled back and disappeared inside its arms and where replaced with small laser cannons.

"I'll say it _one more time. _Who. are. you. and. where. am. I?" It said, with much force behind its voice.

Quickly Charlie replied "Well my name's Charlie and this is my son Max and you're currently in a Tallet's gym. May I ask why you are here, and I don't know, WHY ARE ABLE TO SPEAK?" Charlie yelled the last part, not in anger, but in shock.

The robot's eye's narrowed at him and it spoke "My name is Atomu, but my friends call me Astro. I don't know why I'm here either." It replied, using a voice that said 'ask anymore questions and be fried'.

Charlie opened his was about to say something when Max cut him off.

"Astro. . . if it's okay for me to call you that. . . we didn't force you here and we're not going to damage you. Now please, I think the laser cannons are a little much." He said gently, in hope of not being shot into little pieces. You could almost see the gears in Astro's head turning as his weighed his options, he then straighten up and withdrew his cannons back into his arms and placed his hand back to normal. His eyes darted between them and his glare melted into a face of indifference.

"Uhh. . . can you excuse us for a second?" Max asked him. Astro nodded and Max grabbed Charlie by the arm and dragged him into a room close by. It was a storage room so there were many boxes, packed up against the walls but there was a small space in the middle of the room where 3 boxes where placed, one used as a makeshift table and two used as chairs. A single, bare bulb hung over the box-table granting the room dim light that cast many dark shadows on the walls. Max looked to Charlie and jerked his head toward one of the boxes indicating him to sit while he begins to shut the door, then Max walked over to join him.

"What the hell do we do now?" Max asked his father.

"I don't know" Charlie said, rubbing the back of his head in thought "but we shouldn't piss him off, those laser things looked like they could do some damage."

"Yeah, but what do we do with him; it; whatever it is? He's a ROBOT that looks like he's my age."

"Maybe he's a repair robot? Or a trainer?"

"I don't think so, he is the most advanced thing I've ever-" a sudden sound cut off by a loud crashing sound outside. Max jumped about a foot in the air, and then they raced out of the storage room and glanced around, but found nothing out of place in the gym room, until they saw the broken widow. Quickly they ran outside to see Astro sitting in a crater in the sidewalk clutching at his foot with a pained expression on his face.

"Did you just JUMP OFF A BUILDING?" Charlie yelled at him.

"Yes" he answered matter-of-factly.

"But you- what the- you could have killed yourself!" he replied.

"First off, I AM A ROBOT, I'm fine. And secondly I have rockets in my boots that let me fly, but someone must have deactivated them manually so I wouldn't be able to turn them on myself, and now I am pretty sure I have now damaged this one" he said gesturing to the leg he had been holding.

"Well. . . maybe I could fix it." Max replied

"You?" Astro asked, giving him a skeptical look.

"I am kind of a robot genius/expert." Max responded smiling in self confidence.

"But you said it yourself, I am very advanced."

"Well, yeah but-wait. How could. . ? We were in another room. . . "

"I have _very_ good hearing." He said with a sad smile, still looking at his hut leg.

"Well, I could at least give it a look, right?"

"Sure, but it's not my fault if my rocket starts up while you work on it." He looked up, and genuinely smiled.

* * *

><p>Astro lay on one of the many work benches lining the gym's room walls, Max busily working with his hand shoved inside Astro's leg up to his elbow.<p>

"Do you even know what you're doing in there?" Astro said propping himself up on his elbows to see how Max was doing.

"Pretty good idea, I've fixed lots of robots with my Dad." Max replied as he slowly removed his hand from Astro's leg like he was playing Operation or something. He held up a thin metal ring. He gestured to the ring to show a small portion missing from it.

"I think this is your problem, it looks like this spins around inside your rocket chamber allowing the gear to move, you must have chipped off a piece in the fall, but I can't seem to figure out why you couldn't take off. . . " He explained, drifting off.

"I don't know, if was able to see I could tell you, but detaching my leg is so tedious . . . in the mean time can you fix that?" he said gesturing to the metal ring.

"I can try . . . actually, I think I have just the part hold on a sec!" he ran out of the room. Astro looked after him as he left.

"Wait! Don't just leave me here! Ugh!" he called after Max, and then let his head fall back on the table with a loud SMACK. Now he was left alone, so Astro actually tried to recall what had happened to get him deactivated and sent here. For what purpose? This world seems so . . . old, out of date. Or was this just America? With a sigh he let himself sink into his memory. He flicked through images that where memories, like a photo album seeing his friends, Dr. O'shay, and his sister. He got to the most recent one, and let himself fall into the past.

At first there was nothing, blackness that lasted a long time. Someone had tried to erase this memory, but only partially succeeded. Then the memory began.

_Tenma stood several feet in front of Astro, calmly holding his hand behind his back. They where standing in a forest clearing, dark with the moonless night. Tenma looked behind himself, looking at something, then nodded his head toward Astro. Several robot dogs emerged from the trees, their eyes glowing red. Their metal bodies black, sleek, nimble and built for speed. Astro stood in a fight stance with his hand slightly raised, ready for anything. He glared at Tenma_

"_You're an idiot, no one would ever believe you!" he said a low, angry voice, already knowing why Tenma had called him here. Tenma responded with the click of his tongue and the dogs attacked._

"_Oh but they will when their savoir is missing." Tenma said with his signature sideways smirk. The first dog bit Astro's arm, he cried out in pain and grabbed at the dogs leg and ripped it off. It landed in the grass with a metallic thud and stayed down. The second and third dog leapt and Astro simply melted them with his arm cannons. Metal gears and various other mechanical parts where strewn across the clearing. Astro allowed himself a small victory smile and Tenma burst into maniacal laughter. As soon as Astro realized what was happening it was too late, a net encased him and a shock rocked through his body, Again and again the agonizing pain hit him until he fell gratefully into unconsciousness._

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><p><span>Authors note<span>

Well. . . it's a little longer. . . kinda. It just didn't feel right to contune after this, didn't fit well.

Just for your information if this chapter confused you, Astro in this fic is heavily based off the 2003 series, i might include some stuff from the movie but I don't know. . . 

Anyways, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!

R&R please :)


	3. I Wish I Could Fly

Max ran back into the room with a good sized metal ring to try in Astro's leg.

"Astro! I'm ba-" he stopped realizing that the bench where Astro had been was empty. _How far could he have gone on one leg? _ Max thought as he began searching around for the missing robot. He looked high and low all across the gym, almost giving up, until he noticed a trail of oil drops going toward the stairs. Quickly, he climbed up the stairs and out onto the roof, where he found Astro sitting on the edge of the elevated wall, looking down on the cluttered alley way. His injured leg was pulled up against his chest and the other hanging down over the side.

"Hi Max." Astro greeted him without turning around, and continuing to look across the alley way.

"But I- you where- how did you do that?" Max replied.

Astro turned his head to look at him with a smile "I already told you, I have _really good hearing_." He looked back at the worn street, and released his hurt leg to hang over the edge of the building and set his hands next to him to lean on. Max advanced to where the robot was sitting and positioned himself next to Astro on the wall. They sat there in complete silence, until Max leaned in closed to Astro and whispered.

"What are you staring at?"

"Not staring, just thinking"

"About what?"

"Why I couldn't take off." As he said it he glanced up toward the sky.

"Have you ever flown Max?"

"In a plane, why?"

"Because it's the best thing in the world." He replied, his eyes spoke louder than his words as they gleamed with the happy unshared memories "You're completely free up there, no noise except the wind roaring in your ears, and the wind in your face."

"Sounds incredible-" Max hesitated, a million questions swirling in his head. "Astro?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you so. . . oh how do I phrase it-?"

"Human?" Astro interjected.

"I guess." Max replied, blushing in embarrassment.

Astro sat there for a long moment, thinking of whether or not to avoid the question. After awhile he let out a small laugh, and said almost to himself.

"Why is that always the first question?"

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to-" Max quickly replied.

"No it's okay, huh, where to begin?" he thought aloud.

"How about the beginning?" Max said.

Astro let out a deep sigh, looking back down from the sky back at the abandoned street.

"My creator, his name is Dr. Tenma" Astro hissed out the name. "He had a family, once. A wife and an eleven year old boy, his son's name was Toby. The wife died when the boy was very young. After the death of his wife, Tenma became a very work oriented man. He was the head of the Ministry of Science, the lead robot designer. And begun ignoring Toby for the most part-"

"What does this have to do with you?" Max interjected.

"Just wait, I'm getting to that._ Anyways_, "Astro continued "One day on the way home from school Toby was in a terrible car accident, broke his spine, and died instantly. Tenma heard about the accident from a co-worker and rushed to the scene, he found his dead son and ripped him away from the paramedics. He rushed Toby to his lab at the Ministry of Science and managed to transfer most of his memories to the computer before all the oxygen had left the boy's brain, and before the paramedics arrived and took him. That's when Tenma really went crazy, I mean literally insane. He decided to duplicate his son, a perfect replica, but not so fragile so that he would never lose him again. Not a clone, but close to it."

Max gasped.

"Yes, that robot was me, meant to replace his son. In consequence he created the most advanced piece of technology ever, a robot with a thinking process almost exactly like a humans, and more importantly, a robot with _emotion_. He was very happy, but only for a short while, because soon he figured out that I could never be the child he lost. This infuriated him and he tried to wipe my memory and burn down the Ministry of Science. He almost succeeded, but the fire was soon reported and I was discovered. When they reactivated me, I didn't remember anything, it was a new beginning. But, it didn't last long, Tenma built me so much like a human that when he attempted to wipe my memory, it was like giving me temporary amnesia." he fell silent, a sad look on his face. They sat there for a few moments, Max trying to soak in everything he just heard, staring at the broken pavement below

"And I thought my dad was bad." Max said trying to get Astro mind off it.

"Your dad?" Astro inquired.

"Yeah, he was dating this girl, they where pretty serious, but then I was born and he left. I never even met him until last summer when my mom died and he showed up to reliquish his rights to me and grant them to my aunt and uncle. He basically sold me to them for 50 grand. I only started to forgave him over the summer."

"Wait, then why are you with him now if he gave up his rights to you?"

"After how much we bonded last summer, my aunt agreed to let me spend all my summers with him. It's pretty awesome." Max smiled.

"Well at least yours had a happy ending." Astro said with a sad half smile.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"Mine doesn't get a 'Happily Ever After', and since my so called 'father' has tried multiple times to destroy me. His excuse being he's 'testing my limits'. This gives me reason to believe he is the one who disabled my rockets and sent me here."

At the sound of this Max perked up with hope. "Wait, did you remember something?"

"Yeah, I'm confident that he tried to erase my memory, but only partially succeeded, and he might have tampered with other memories."

"What did you remember?" Max asked again, staring at him intently.

"Well. . ." Astro paused for a minute, not sure if he wanted to tell him. "He sent robotic dogs after me. . . then I told him he was crazy. . . and then he socked me until I passed out."

"You can pass out?"

"How many times do I have to tell you how human like and advanced I am?" Astro asked rolling his eyes.

"Until it sinks in that you're a robot, which will probably never happen." Max replied smiling wide. Slowly he let himself slide off the side of the wall onto the roof so his lower legs still rested on the wall and his back on the roof. He stared up at the blue sky, dotted with a few big white fluffy clouds.

"Astro?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever just sat and watched the sky?"

"No, why?"

"Because, when you look at the sky you see the same sky hundreds of thousands of millions of others have seen, but you know you see it completely different then everyone else."

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><p><strong>Authors Note<strong>

******Sorry this chapter took so long, my teachers where all like "oh you want free time? here is a MILLION POUNDS OF HOMEWORK!"**

**So. . . yeah, I promise I own't give on this fic! It just takes me awhile. . . **

**R&R please! It means you care!**


	4. The Man in the Trench Coat

After awhile Max fell asleep. Out of the corner of his eye Astro could see the rise and fall of Max's chest slow with the deep breaths of sleep. Astro looked back to the sky, slowly it faded from a bright blue to a soft purple. Even though it was summer, Astro's sensors indicated that the temperature was dropping dramatically with the nightfall, and would soon wake Max. So Astro rose to his feet quietly and gently scooped the boy into his arms, being very careful not to wake him. He crept down the stairs from the roof, examining each step to make sure it would not squeak, and slowly headed toward Max's room. Astro lightly pushed on the ajar door with his back to open it and make a gentle spin around on one foot to face the room. It was dark, except for the faint light coming through the doorway. Astro saw the walls completely bare, a simple twin sized bed with a black and blue streaked comforter messily pushed down at the foot of the bed. On the right of the bed where a few boxes waiting to be unpacked, their lids partially open. The left side of the bed was almost identical except for the big blue machine that could probably eat three Maxs and still have room for more. Astro set Max down on the bed and approached the coblat blue monster. He scanned the robot up and down, searching in his data banks for more information on it. _Oh my gosh, _he realized _it's a. . ._

"That's my boxing robot." Max finished Astro's thought. "His name is Atom actually, kind of like you." He mumbled, his voice thick with sleep.

"Boxing robots?" Astro replied, unimpressed. "This is just a generation 2 sparring bot, not to mention robot boxing fell out of style in 2030."

Max gave the smaller robot a weird look, like he had grown an extra arm or something.

"Ummm Astro, it's 2021."

Astro, who had still been examining the sparring bot turn toward Max his eyes going wide, his face contorted with a frown as calculations whizzed through his head. He burst out laughing.

"Oh I get it, your just pulling my leg. Got it." He said, and smiled wide.

"Um no, actually, I'm not. Today is June 24th 2021." Max insisted.

Astro took a step back, like he had just taken a punch to the stomach, he looked at Max's face, trying to see if he was lying or not, but Max wasn't lying. Then something clicked in his head.

"That crazy bastard did it." he muttered.

"What?"

"Tenma, he fixed that stupid time machine!" Astro yelled, frustrated, looking like he might punch straight through someone's head.

"Astro! Calm yourself! I would really like not to have holes in me or my room. What's going on?" Max said.

"That stupid time machine, if this is 2021 you're 76 years older than me."

Max squinted for a moment, trying to do the math in his head. He may have been a robotic genius, but he didn't like math.

"So. . you're from 2085? How did you not notice that this wasn't 2021 earlier?" Max questioned, super confused.

"I guess I didn't realize because I've never been to America, or really paid attention to it before."

"Never been to America? Then where are you from?"

Astro just stared at him for a long minute, then glanced at himself, then back to Max.

"Really? REALLY? How could you not tell I'm from Japan? I'm from 80 years in the future and even I know Americans think we're nerds!"

Then Max chuckled, and laughed so hard he fell back onto his bed.

"What's so funny?" Astro asked defensively.

Max slowly stopped laughing and rose to his feet.

"It's just, I mean, really? You're wearing red boot that come up to your knees and that hair is. . . far too, interesting. Duh we think you're weird." Max stuck his tongue out at the smaller robot and continued "Not to mention all the return label on your crate said 'Tokyo, Japan'."

"What?" Astro yelled

"Jeeze! Yeah, that's what it said, why?"

"Because from where I'm from, Tokyo was destroyed..."

"Tokyo gets destroyed? How?"

"Let's just say an geek with too much funding took the Godzilla movies too seriously." Astro said with his head in his hands, trying to hide from the stupidity of it all.

"Oh, but why wouldn't the post mark be from Tokyo?"

Astro lifted his head from his hands in a quick jerking motion, realizing something.

"THAT BASTARD!" he screamed, Max stepped back just incase he deiced to explode or something.

"What?" Max asked nervously.

"That means he's here, which means he's still messing with me, not just getting rid of me."

"But what about-" Max was cut off with Charlie entering the room, he stood there awkwardly for a few, terribly long moments.

"Just making sure you guy's where okay." He finally said "And Max, did you forget? We have a match tonight!"

Max face palmed. "No! I fell asleep and then me and Astro where talking. . ."

"You have a match? At 10:37pm?" the small robot asked.

"No, at 11:30 actually, but they're usually this late." Max replied as he walked over to Atom and turned him on. The sparring bot lit up, glowing azure blue, then rose to its feet and stood there.

"Let's go!" Max said in a mix of a sing-song and yelling, excitedly.

* * *

><p>He stood not far above the rink on a rickety service catwalk, he leaned forward on the old rusty rail to look down below. Tenma, a ghost of a smile on his lips, as he saw Astro flinched away from every hit thrown in the merciless battle between the boxing robots. He had good reason to send Astro into this robot boxing time, but it was an added bonus that he hated it. Tenma had three robots out amongst the crowd, a boxing robot waiting for the next match, the "human" controlling the boxing bot, and Astro. The fight ended between the current two contenders, so the next match would start in ten minutes. <em>Just enough time to get . . . a better view.<em>

* * *

><p>The crowd grew louder with people placing bets on which robot to win. Astro shoved his way through the crowd with Max, trying to get to Atom and Charlie before the match began. When they reached the rink Max ran to Charlie and they immediately began testing all of Atom's functions and combos. Astro stood awkwardly on the side, people staring at him. He was new to everyone here, the guy nobody knew with the (almost) world champion famous. He was thankful Max had thought to lend him some cloths, so he wasn't wandering around basically naked, wearing dark blue boot cut jeans and a gray v-neck, but his "hair" stuck out like a sore thumb. Astro was shaken form his thoughts when music began to blast through the speakers as Max and Atom made their famous appearance dancing into the ring, the crowd going bazerk. The music was cut off as Max hustled out of the rink and the match begun. Max stood next to Astro as Charlie started yelling orders through the headset.<p>

"RIGHT! LEFT! DUCK! NOW SMASH HIM!" Charlie screamed at Atom.

The other guy must have heard him, because the other robot, 'Thunder', dodged right then landed a punch right into Atoms stomach, the sparring bot fell with a BOOM. The ref began to count

"_1. . . 2 . . . 3 . . ."_

"Get up Atom! COME ON!" Charlie yelled, half begging.

"_8. . .9. . . 10! _The winner is Thunnnderr!" The announcer proclaimed.

Charlie threw the voice command headset to the ground, kicked at the table in front of him, running his fingers over his buzzed hair and letting out a frustrated sigh. . He faced Max and hotly pointed at the ring.

"There is no way Thunder took down Atom that easily, he should have been able to get back up." He yelled angrily, pointing toward the ring. Charlie jumped up on the table and made his way into the ring to talk with the referee.  
>Then everything happened at once.<p>

Then Astro heard it, breathing, his breathing. He whipped around and saw a blur of faces everywhere.

Then, him.

Everything seemed to disappear, and all Astro could see was him, and his accompanying twisted smile. He looked the same as he always had, even back into the Tobys memory. He had his dark curly hair that stuck out on the sides of his head and his absurdly long goatee, he wore the same dark trench coat that was 3 sizes too big and a pin striped fedora that covered his eyes. He had both hands hung at his side, but one held a small remote. Tenma finally looked up, deep into Astros eyes, his smirk widened a bit. Astro saw his hand flex and before he could react he heard a loud BANG! right behind him. Astro spun around to see the ring had fallen inwards, people running away, panicked. Astro looked back at Tenma, who had already begun to walk away. Astro ran toward the collapsed ring, the floor completely missing from it. He began ripping away the siding like tearing a piece of paper, easily flinging it behind him, to discover a large dark hole in the ground. Astro could sense Max standing next to him, he turned to look. Max looked at the hole, then to Astro, then back to the hole, his mouth gaping.  
>"Max?"<br>"Yeah?"  
>"Don't follow me." At the last word Astro took a step forward and fell into the hungry darkness.<p>

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><p>Sorry this chapter took so long guys! I thought with spring break (way back in April) I would just whip out another chapter (ha). Life has been super crazy the last couple months with no free time to write. . . but I hope you enjoyed the chapter!<p>

R&R! you know you want to!

_Now. *_death glare*


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